Leather whitening and buffing machine.



TJ. OKEEFFE. LEATHER WHITENING AND BUFFING MACHINE.

, APPLICATION FILED FEB. I2l 19's' 39%@9460 2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

Patented Mm. 26, 1918.

,l 2V 'Wnessesq www T. J. OKEEFFE.

LEAHER WHITENING AND BUFFING MACHINE.

AePucATloN man 153.12.1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

216 l5 1 n al? A 2 Wr1ess es. Inveor. MVM Thomas J. o Keeffe byMMs M Anys Patented M111'. 26, 1915.

THOMAS J' OKEEFFE, OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

Laeoase.

Specification of Letters Patent.

LEATHER WHITENING .AND BUFFING MACHINE.

Patented Mar. 26, llgil.

Application filed February 12, 1915. Serial N0. 7,916.

To all whoml t may concern.'

Be it known that I, THOMAS J. OKEEFFE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cambridge, county of Middlesex, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in .Leather Whitening and Bufling Machines, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawing, is a specification, like characters on the drawing representing like parts.

This invention relates to a machine for whitening and buiiing leather and has for its general object to provide a machine of this type by which the whitening and buffing operations can be greatly facilitated and which operates to remove the surface of the leather during the whitening or buffing operation in the form of a sheet instead of in small pieces or chips. A In the manufacture of leather belts and some other goods made of leather, it is customary to treat the leather to either a so-called whitening operation or a buing operation or both. The term whitening'is used to designate the. operation of removing the surface of the flesh side of leather while the term buiiing is used" in the trade to indicate the removing of the surface of the grain side of the leather. In manufacturing leather belts for power purposes, it is customary to make the belt of two strips ofleather glued together in order to increase the strength thereof, and the two strips are usually glued with their flesh sides toward each other. In order that the gluing operation may be effective, it is essential to whiten the leather so as to open' the pores thereof and allow the glue or other adhesive to penetrate the leather. In thus whitening the leather it is important to remove as little as possible of the leather in order not to reduce the strength of the leather. Heretofore this operation of whitening leather in the manufacture of leather belts has been 'done by hand, the operator using a hand-scraping implement by which he operates on the flesh side of the leather to scrape Athe lsurface therefrom. This is a slow and tedious operation and the material which is thus removed from the leather is in the form of small chips and is worthless for any manufacturing purpose. It is customary in belt-manufacturing establishments to gather up the chips thus removed and burn them in the furnace.

Similarly, the buifing operation is usually done by hand and the material which is removed 1s of no commercial value.

I have provided herein a machine adapted for whitening or bufling leather by which the operations can be rapidly performed and which operates to remove the surface of the leather duringl either the whitening or bufling operation 1n the form of a thin sheet which is capable of use commercially in various ways, such, for instance, as covering forpocket books, book covers, etc.

In order to invention I have illustrated in the drawings a selected embodiment thereof which will be described, after which the novel features will be pointed out in the appended claims.`

In the drawings, Figure l is a vertical sectional view-through a machine embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a section on substantially the line Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a detail view of themeans for adjusting the bed plate;

Fig. 4 is a section on the line y-Jy, Fi 3; Fig. 5 is a detail of the bed-plate-adjustmg means;

Fig. 6 shows a piece of leather and illustrates the way in which the whiteningl or buiiing operation is performed.

As stated above, my improvedmachine is constructed .to remove either the flesh or the grain surface of the leather at one operation, and in the form of a thin 'sheet which is co-extensive in area withthe piece of leather from which it is'removed.

In the manufacture of leather belts for power purposes strips of leather of the width of the required belt are cut from the hide longitudinally thereof, these strips being glued together to make a belt of the required length. A hide varies in thickness, the -portion of the hide near the rump being thicker than that toward the shoulders and the portion on the back being thicker than that on the belly.v Consequently when strips of leather are cut longitudinallyy from a hide they will vary in thickness, the end of the strip taken from the shoulder being thinner than that taken from the rump. In

give an understanding of my y whitening orbuli-ng a leather strip of this character which varies in thickness, it is desirable that the same amount should be removed ,from all parts of the leather strip as it is necessary merely to remove the flesh ,surface improved machine is constructed so as to accomplish this object so lll@ ` supporting elementhaving a fixed and nonyielding gaging edge, a cutting knife having a fixed position relative to said element and situated with its cutting edge closely adjacent to and slightly above said gaging edge, a presser roll constructed to yield internally which whitened at apoint directly over and closely adjacent the cutting edge of the knife, and means to draw the leather between the presser element and unyielding gaging edge against the edge of the knife. The adjustment of the knife relative to the non-yielding gaging edge determines the thickness of the sheet which is to be removed from the -leather strip, and the yieldin character of the presser element holds the eather as it is drawn through the machine in proper position relative to the knife to eect the whitening operation. The yielding nature of said presser element permits the portions of leather of varying thickness to pass through the machine without varying the thickness of the sheet of leather which is removed by' the knife.

In the illustrated embodiment of myinvention the gaging edge is constituted by the edge 6 of a bed plate 1 which is supported 'o'n a suitable frame 2. The knife is illustrated at 3, it beingsupported on the portion 4 of the frame in any suitable way, and it being provided with a cutting edge 5 which is situated closely adjacent to the gaging edge 6 of the bed plate 1. The presser element is shown as a roll 7 which is made of rubber or any Other yielding material so that different portions thereof will yield or give relative to other portions. Said presser roll maybe supported in any suitable way, and in the construction herein shown it is mounted on a shaft 8 which is journaled in a swinging frame 9 carried in uprights 10 secured to the main ,frame 2. This frame 9 is shown as having trunnions 11 journaled in bearingsorblocks 12 that are vertically adjustable inthe uprights 10 and are held in their adjusted position by adjusting screws 13. The frame 1s also provided wlth an arm 14: carrying a weight 15 at its end, which weight normally holds the roll in its operative position shown in full lines Fig. 1. The frame 9, however, can be swung into the` dotted line position Fig. 1 to carry the presser roll away from the bed plate in order to permita strip of leather 16 to be inserted in position. In carrying out the whitening operation with this machine, the presser roll 7 is separated from the bed plate and a piece of leather 16 to rests on the leather being be whitened is placed between the gaging edge 6 and the presser roll, and the latter is then brought into operative position, as shown in full lines. The piece of leather 16 is then drawn throughthe machine in the direction of the arrow a and during this operation the yielding presser roll 7 holds the leather firmly against the non-yielding gaging edge and in position so that the cutting edge 5 of the knife 3 will cut from the under surface of the leather a thin wafer-like sheet 17, the thickness of which is determined by the adjustment of the knife 3 relative to the gaging edge.

Any suitable means may be employed for drawing the leather strip through the machine and` I have herein shown for this purpose a pair of feed rolls 18 and 19 between which the leather strip 16 passes and -which can be operated by any suitable means.

ing edge 6 and knife 3 is herein partially provided for by making the bed 1 capable of vertical adjustment and while any suitable means for accomplishing this may be employed I have herein shown said bed as sustained on two wedge-shaped membersv 20 and 21 and have also provided means for adjusting these wedge members relative to eachother thereby to raise and lower the bed 1 and thereby raise and lower the gaging edge 6. Asherein shown the wedge member 21 has journaled therein at each endthereof an adjusting screw 22, each of which engages a nut 23 operating in the wedge, member 2O so that when the screws 22 are turned the wedge member 20 will be moved relative to the member 21 to effect the desired ad-` justment. In order that the two adjusting screws may be operated simultaneously, I have herein shown them as both geared to an operating shaft 24 by means of bevel gears 25 so that turning movement of the shaft will elfectan adjustment of both adjusting screws 22. The knife 3 may also be adjustably secured tothe portion 4 of the bed inV any suitable way.

' The machine above described will operate to remove a thin wafer-like sheet of uniform thickness from the leather strip 16, regardless of the varying thickness thereof. When a strip of leather is cut from a hide it varies in thickness as indicated in Fig. 6,

the end 26 comingfrom the shoulder being the surface piece 17 which is cut from the leather will be uniform in thickness and will of the leather.

s* In Fig. 6 the dotted line 28 indicates the l1ne on which the knife will operate, the portion of the leather strip 16 between the dotted line 28 and the under face of the strip .constituting the sheet which is removed in the whitening process. The fact that the knife blade 3 'and gaging edge 6 are fixed with relation to each other while the roll 7 can yield results in insuring that the line 28 on which the sheet 17 is cut will follow the contour-of the lower side of the leather stripe 16 regardless of the variation in thickness o f the leather.

Inl the' operation of the machine it is essential that the yielding roll 7- should be properly positioned, relative to the cutting edge 5 of the knife-blade and the aging edge 6 of the bed plate, the roll bemg so positioned that it acts on the leather strip immediately in advance-and almost over the cutting edge 5 and over the gaging edge 6. The roll 7 will preferably be adjusted so that it will press against the leather strip 16 with sutlicient pressure to cause the lower side of the roll which engages with the strip to be flattened somewhat, as shown best in Fig. '1, s0 that the roll has. engagement with the leather over an extended area rather than along merely a line as would be the case if the roll were non-yielding. The result of s this 'is that the portion of the leather 16 wafer-like sheet 17.

being acted on by the knife and also that portion immediately in advance of the knife will be firmly held in position, thus making it possible for the knife to shave oft' a thin An important feature of the invention is the provision'of the fixed and unyieldableand which coperates with the from the under surface of the leather, thereby performing either the whitening or buiiing operations insuch a way that the material which is removed is in the form of 'a continuous sheet.v

' I claim:

l. In a leather-whitening and bumn'g'vmalcombination with gaging edge 6 which is .f

yieldable presser element to cut a vvthin wafer-like sheet chine, the combination with an element presenting a fixed unyielding gaging edge over which the leather to be treated is fed, of

a knife situated with its cutting edge ex` senting a xed unyielding gaging ed e over' which the leather to be treated is ed,v of al knife situated with its cutting edge extending parallel to" said gaging edge and situated closely adjacent to but slightly above the latter, an internally-yieldable presser element situated to bear on the leather at a point immediately adjacent the edge of the knife and above the gaging edge, said element yielding at different portions to accommodate the varying thicknesses of the leather, means to feed the leather between said edge and presser element, and means to adjust said knife and gaging edge relative to each other.

3. In a machine of the class described,` the an element presenting a fixed unyielding gaging edge over which the v leather to be treated is fed, of a knife having its cutting edge closely adjacent said gaging edge, and means to cause said knife to cut from the under face of the leather an ex tremely thin wafer-like sheet of uniform vthickness regardless of the variation in' the thickness of the leather from which the sheet is cut 'both in the Adirection of feed and in a direction transversely thereto.

' In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribin witnesses.

A T OMAS J. OKEEFFE.

1 Witnesses:

, ELIZABETH Gr. Monats,

'Tuoi/ras J. DRUMMOND. 

